The Commentariat -- August 10

After nearly a week without Off Times Square, I've opened a blogspot site -- Reality Chex Annex -- for comments. The URL is

     http://www.RealityChexAnnex.blogspot.com

     If you click on the link, Reality Chex Annex will open in a new window. The easiest way to post your comment, I think, is on the "Select Profile" dropdown menu, choose the "Name/URL" option & type your name (or pseudonym) and, if you don't have your own Website, use http://www.RealityChex.com as the URL.

     This isn't a good solution, but as a temporary solution, it's okay. Sorry for the inconvenience, everybody.

MoDo lets Obama have it today: "The president has been ... spectacularly unable to fill the leadership void in Washington... His inability to grab a microphone and spontaneously assuage Americans’ fears is strange.... He long ago should have gone out into the country to talk to Americans in person and come up with a concrete plan.... His withholding and reactive nature has made him seem strangely irrelevant in Washington, trapped by his own temperament. He doesn’t lead, and he doesn’t understand why we don’t feel led." Write on this or something else. ...

     ... Karen Garcia & I have posted comments.

** Guess Whose Job the President Cares about -- Yours or His? Robert Reich: "... rather than fight for a bold jobs plan, the White House has apparently decided it’s politically wiser to continue fighting about the deficit. The idea is to keep the public focused on the deficit drama – to convince them their current economic woes have something to do with it, decry Washington’s paralysis over fixing it, and then claim victory over whatever outcome emerges from the process recently negotiated to fix it. They hope all this will distract the public’s attention from the President’s failure to do anything about continuing high unemployment and economic anemia. When I first heard this I didn’t want to believe it.... The President is being badly advised. "

CNN: "According to a new national survey, for the first time ever most Americans don't believe their own member of Congress deserves re-election.... And the CNN/ORC International Poll released Tuesday also indicates that while Republicans may have had the upper hand in the recent battle over raising the debt ceiling, they appear to have lost a lot of ground with the public and the party's unfavorable rating is now at an all time high.... Read full results (pdf). ...

     ... Steve Benen made a chart! ...

     ... Not that Benen is optimistic. In a later post, he writes: "Come a year from now, Rove and the Koch brothers will pump secret money into key races; Fox News will rally the troops; and voter-suppression tactics will keep Dems from the polls. It’s tough for a wildly unpopular party to win, but Republicans would almost certainly rather take their chances than govern."

Alexander Bolton of The Hill of Sen. Harry Reid's appointment of Sens. Patty Murray, Max Baucus & John Kerry to the deficit reduction Super Committee: "Labor unions and liberal groups lobbied Reid vigorously not to appoint members of the Senate’s Gang of Six to the panel because they unveiled a framework last month calling for significant cuts to Medicare and Social Security. Those liberal groups were leery of Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), members of the Gang of Six, because they also voted for a deficit-reduction proposal from the Simpson-Bowles commission." ...

... David Dayen of Firedoglake is not all that pleased: "Meet Your Catfood Commission," he titles his post.

** Jonathan Bernstein in the Washington Post: "... the Fed is a good target for liberal organizing, and it’s all too often overlooked. Liberals should be pressing Obama to immediately name people for the two open seats on the Fed, and to threaten the Senate that he will recess appoint them if they are not approved in, say, 30 days. It’s outrageous that the Senate filibustered Nobel Prize winner Peter Diamond when Obama nominated him, but even more outrageous that Obama did little to fight for him [emphasis added] — and that liberals didn’t appear to care very much about it. Beyond pressing Obama, liberals should be actively campaigning against the do-nothing Fed."

Margaret Bogenrief of the Business Insider: "Last month, and pre-U.S.-downgrade, S&P put out the notice – to not much effect, of course – that a downgrade of 7,000 American municipalities was in the works. And while S&P's announcement yesterday that these downgrades weren't 'guaranteed' (that is, some municipalities will escape S&P's wrath), some ARE coming. It may not be 7,000. But there will be a significant number of them."

CW: back before Off Times Square went on glitch-enforced hiatus, one conservative commenter opined that poor people in the U.S. were fairly well-off. You can read the thread here. I also urge you to read Barbara Ehrenriech's essay, a follow-up to her 2001 book Nickle and Dimed on poverty in America. ...

... Jeffrey Brown profiled Philip Levine, the new American poet laureate, for PBS in 2010. Transcript of Brown's interview of Levine here. Beneath the video on the linked page are links to related videos, including Brown's extended interview of Levine & Levine reading some of his best-known works.

Dan Primack of Fortune: "Lucy Nobbe, a vice president with Wedbush Morgan Securities, had this to say to S&P. (She would have said it to Congress, but planes can't fly over Washington, D.C.):

The banner reads, "Thanks for the Downgrade. You Should All Be Fired." Photo via the New York Observer.     ... Foster Kamer of the New York Observer: "She's a single mother of two ... who does not have a lot of discretionary cash...."

Less corruption, more speech. Robust campaigns leading to the election of representatives not beholden to the few, but accountable to the many. The people of Arizona might have expected a decent respect for those objectives. Today, they do not get it. -- Justice Elena Kagan, Arizona Free Enterprise Club v. Bennett, dissenting opinion ...

... Jeffrey Rosen of The New Republic: Elena Kagan is a really good writer. "In her first year on the Court, she wrote three dissents, two of which combine Scalia’s gift for the sharp aphorism with John Roberts’s powers of analytical dissection. But she also has something more: an ability to puncture her colleagues’ bloodless abstractions and tendentious arguments, and to explain the constitutional stakes in plain language that all citizens can understand."

Liz Sly of the Washington Post: "Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s attempt to crush dissent through a massive military offensive appears to be backfiring, with fervent condemnations both at home and abroad undermining his government’s chances of survival. The bloodshed of the past 10 days has drawn the ire of regional powers that had stayed silent throughout the nearly five-month-old uprising but were outraged by the killings of fellow Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan. It has also prompted calls for a tougher stand in the West, particularly from Washington."

Right Wing World *

Wrong about Everything. Paul Krugman on Tim Pawlenty: "... as far as I can tell he's Sarah Palin in a suit."

Dana Milbank: "... the Tea Party movement: It is fueled by populist anger, but it has been hijacked by plutocrats. Well-intentioned Tea Party foot soldiers demand that power be returned to the people, but then their clout is used to support tax cuts for millionaires. They rally for tougher immigration laws, but then their guy in Washington helps corporations to fire U.S. workers and hire foreign nationals." Milbank cites Georgia Tea Party Rep. Austin Scott, who campaigned against illegal immigration, but who just introduced a bill "to defend a company in his district that discriminates against U.S. citizens in favor of Mexican migrant workers."

The Hobbits Revolt. Arizona Republican: "U.S. Sen. John McCain's town-hall meeting Monday in Gilbert broke down into a shouting match at times as 'tea-party' activists directed their anger and frustration toward the senator over issues ranging from his characterization of them as 'hobbits' to the nation's sagging economy.

Still Crazy at the National Review. Judd Legum of Think Progress: "This morning [Tuesday] in the National Review, Stanley Kurtz suggests that President Obama privately supports the violent protesters" in Britain. The leap of logic that Kurtz takes to "support" his supposition is breathtaking.

Still Crazy in Texas. Fort Worth Star-Telegram: "Hours after the Dow Jones industrial average closed down more than 600 points Monday, U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Lewisville, heard from local conservatives who were unhappy that ... Burgess was one of seven Texas Republicans in the House to vote for the [deficit] ... deal...." Burgess also agreed with a constituent who said President Obama should be impeached. "It needs to happen," he said. He thought impeachment would help "tie things up" so no more "damage" could be done. ...

... Dan Balz of the Washington Post on "the Rick Perry that Texans know": "Texans say Perry has been underestimated many times. But he’s never faced what will await him if he does jump in."

Blame Leonardo. The Culture Monster of the Los Angeles Times: "Tea party queen and Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann is convinced that America is sinking into tyranny. Why? In a remarkable profile of the candidate appearing in the Aug. 15 issue of the New Yorker magazine, the artistic flowering of the Italian Renaissance takes a beating for having done away with the god-fearing Dark Ages." Ryan Lizza's New Yorker article, which we linked earlier this week, is here.

* Where populists vote but plutocrats win.

News Ledes

New York Times: "After sweeping declines on Monday were followed by huge gains on Tuesday, stocks on Wall Street finished steeply lower on Wednesday as each of the three main indexes dropped more than 4 percent. Wednesday’s trading completely wiped out the gains of the previous day in the broader market as measured by the Standard & Poor’s 500 index."

New York Times: "Gov. Rick Perry of Texas delivered a long-distance jolt to the Republican presidential campaign on Monday by signaling that he intends to join the race and visit South Carolina and New Hampshire on Saturday, the same day his rivals are battling for survival in the Iowa Straw Poll."

Guardian: "A US air strike has killed the Taliban militants believed to be responsible for shooting down a Chinook helicopter, killing 38 US and Afghan troops, the top commander in Afghanistan said. Marine Corps General John Allen told a Pentagon news conference that forces learned where the insurgents had fled to and killed them in an early morning F-16 air strike on Monday."

Guardian: "The United States is poised to shift its position on Syria by calling on President Bashar al-Assad to step down because of the violence he has inflicted on his own people and his failure to implement meaningful reforms for the last five months. Barack Obama could issue the demand as early as Thursday...."

New York Times: "With 10,000 additional police officers deployed across London, and trouble flaring in other cities, Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday threatened sustained police measures including the possible use of water cannons to curb the looting and arson that have shaken many parts of Britain for four consecutive days." Here's the Guardian's liveblog.

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: "Democrats won two state Senate seats in Tuesday's historic recall elections, but failed to capture a third seat that would have given them control of the chamber. By keeping a majority in the Senate, Republicans retained their monopoly on state government because they also hold the Assembly and governor's office. Tuesday's elections narrowed their majority - at least for now - from 19-14 to a razor-thin 17-16. Republicans may be able to gain back some of the losses next week, when two Democrats face recall elections."

Wall Street Journal: "Standard & Poor's downgrade of the U.S. government's credit rating has created something few thought possible: a bipartisan consensus in Washington. Unfortunately for S&P, the rating firm is the one in the crosshairs. Democrats and Republicans in Congress are gearing up to put it under investigative scrutiny and do more to restrict the influence of S&P and its peers in financial markets." ...

... S&P Got One Thing Right. Washington Post: "House and Senate Republicans have rallied around the notion of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution as a solution to the country’s dire fiscal straits. But over the weekend, the head of Standard & Poor’s sovereign ratings division dismissed the idea, arguing that it would be more harmful than helpful to the country’s creditworthiness. 'In general, we think that fiscal rules like these just diminish the flexibility of the government to respond' to crises, S&P managing director John Chambers told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer...."

Washington Post: "A three-judge federal panel on Monday upheld a ban on campaign donations by foreigners.... In a unanimous opinion issued in the District’s federal court, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh wrote that it wasn’t even a close call for Congress to ban such contributions. 'It is fundamental to the definition of our national political community that foreign citizens do not have a constitutional right to participate in, and thus may be excluded from, activities of democratic self-government,' wrote Kavanaugh, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit."

Washington Post: "About 4,000 employees of the Federal Aviation Administration ... would receive back pay for the two-week partial shutdown of the agency under a bill introduced in the House on Tuesday. Restoration of the lost pay has been expected but requires congressional action. With Congress away until after Labor Day, it would be September before the workers see the money."

Finally, the Administration Does Something for Ordinary Americans. New York Times: "The Library of Congress will announce on Wednesday that Philip Levine, best known for his big-hearted, Whitmanesque poems about working-class Detroit, is to be the next poet laureate, succeeding W. S. Merwin."

Don't Tattle on S&P. New York Times: "Three days after Treasury Department officials discovered what they called a mistake in the assumptions used by Standard & Poor’s to justify the downgrade of United States debt, the president of S.& P. wrote to securities regulators saying that ratings agencies should not be required to publicly disclose all errors in their calculations."

The Commentariat -- August 9

Today is election day in Wisconsin.

Still no Off Times Square. I'm no longer frustrated. I'm calm. Some stage of grief, I guess.

Irony Grab

Investors piled out of stocks and into a few 'safe havens,' such as gold and Treasury bonds. The appetite for Treasury bonds suggests that the Standard & Poor's downgrade has not shaken investors' faith in U.S. bonds. -- Nathaniel Popper of the Los Angeles Times

Let me see if I have this right: investors are fleeing stocks because Standard & Poors downgraded U.S. debt, and they're moving their money into....U.S. Treasury bonds. -- Jill of Brilliant at Breakfast ...

... Pundits Are Making Paul Krugman's Head Explode: "Carnage in stock markets ... and all of the headlines I see attribute it to S&P’s downgrade.... What triggered economy fears? To some extent I think this is a Wile E. Coyote moment, with investors suddenly noticing just how weak the fundamentals are. Also, the mess in Europe.... But all the Very Serious People, having totally misdiagnosed our problems so far, will probably double down on that wrong diagnosis as markets fall."

Economist Brad DeLong: "... the only strong [economic] policy views in the administration's internal debate mix right now are those of people who were wrong in the summer of 2009. And when I talk to their staffs, the message I hear is not 'we were wrong about how the world works, and are rethinking the issues from the ground up to figure out what to do' but instead 'we were unlucky: our policies were good'."

Paul Kane of the Washington Post handicaps the potential members of the Congressional deficit-reduction Super Committee. The leaders will choose the committee members by August 16.

"Why?" Dana Milbank: President Obama is “the leader of the free world. Why isn’t he leading this process?” Politico's Glenn Thrush asked Jay Carney. "That," writes Milbank, "is the enduring mystery of Obama’s presidency. He delivered his statement on the economy beneath a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, but that was as close as he came to forceful leadership. He looked grim and swallowed hard and frequently as he mixed fatalism ('markets will rise and fall') with vague, patriotic exhortations ('this is the United States of America'). ...

... CW: I'm going to give you an answer that I myself don't buy. But you decide. Profs. Andrew Burstein & Nancy Isenberg, writing in Salon, compare Presidents Obama and James Madison., the Constitutional authority. The writers claim the two presidents' belief in the separation of powers defined their terms in office and that that belief is what has kept Obama from entering the Congressional fray; i.e., kept him from leading. CW: if this were so, what about Obama's expanded claims of executive privilege? What about those signing statements?

Jonathan Chait of The New Republic: because Obama has called for a payroll tax, Republicans suddenly don't like it any more; instead, they "are floating the possibility of trading the payroll tax cut extension for a tax break for repatriating overseas corporate funds." There could not be a worse idea, as Chait explains. So, "Republicans oppose a payroll tax cut extension that does not add significantly to the long-term deficit on newfound anti-deficit grounds, unless it can be traded for another, far more regressive tax cut that does significantly add to the long-term deficit. Then they'll demand that either Obama submit to that policy or be complicit in an economy-harming tax hike." CW: Chait misses one important point that Krugman has made: Republicans only like tax cuts for the rich, as this potential trade deal further attests.

Nina Power of the Guardian on the British riots: "Since the [Parliamentary] coalition came to power just over a year ago, the country has seen multiple student protests, occupations of dozens of universities, several strikes, a half-a-million-strong trade union march and now unrest on the streets of the capital.... Each of these events was sparked by a different cause, yet all take place against a backdrop of brutal cuts and enforced austerity measures.... Combine understandable suspicion of and resentment towards the police ... with high poverty and large unemployment and the reasons why people are taking to the streets become clear." CW: Read her whole column, & if you're an American, ask yourself if it could happen here. Hint: see today's Ledes for a partial answer.

Sam Baker of The Hill: "The Medicare agency heralded a test program Monday that it says will serve as a model for healthcare reform's accountable care organizations (ACOs). The agency said it has seen strong results from a five-year demonstration project with goals that are similar to ACOs' — lowering costs by improving quality and shifting away from paying doctors to perform more procedures."

Common Cause: "ALEC -- the American Legislative Exchange Council – is a secretive front group of hundreds of corporations that are investing millions of dollars a year to write business-friendly legislation at the expense of the middle class. ALEC is holding its annual meeting this week in New Orleans. That means that hundreds of state legislators from all over the country are right now sitting side-by-side with corporate representatives hammering out 'model bills' that could be coming to your state capitol in a matter of weeks or months." On the linked page, there is a terrific form message to send to your legislators asking them to fill out lobbyist registration forms. Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link. ...

... John Nichols of The Nation: "Founded in 1973 by Paul Weyrich and other conservative activists frustrated by recent electoral setbacks, ALEC is a critical arm of the right-wing network of policy shops that, with infusions of corporate cash, has evolved to shape American politics. Inspired by Milton Friedman’s call for conservatives to 'develop alternatives to existing policies [and] keep them alive and available,' ALEC’s model legislation reflects long-term goals: downsizing government, removing regulations on corporations and making it harder to hold the economically and politically powerful to account. Corporate donors retain veto power over the language, which is developed by the secretive task forces." Thanks to Dave S. for the link.

Right Wing World *

I Pledge Allegiance to Grover Norquist. Brian Beutler of TPM: "In a Monday memo to the House GOP caucus, [House Majority Leader Eric Cantor] candidly acknowledged that S&P faulted the party's unyielding stance on tax revenues for the downgrade. But he encourages members not to erase this bright line: 'I firmly believe we can find bipartisan agreement on savings from mandatory programs that can be agreed to without tax increases. I believe this is what we must demand from the Joint Committee as it begins its work.'"

Ben Adler of The Nation: "It is clear from Standard & Poor’s statement downgrading the federal government’s credit rating that it places the blame squarely on Republican actions and policies.... So, how are Republican presidential candidates responding? By blaming President Obama, instead of their co-partisans in Congress who are actually responsible." ...

... Danny Yadron of the Wall Street Journal: the Mittigator has since slightly mitigated his earlier screed against Obama by saying, “I don’t think it’s simply the president’s fault. I’m sure there are many people to share responsibility for the excessive spending in Washington over the past couple of decades.” He then goes on to blame Obama -- again -- and absolve the current Republican Tea Party Congress.

Too bad for Mitt. The Colbert SuperPac gets behind Rick Perry:

... Contra Colbert, Alex Pareene of Salon writes a post titled, "If Rick Perry is seriously a presidential front-runner there's something wrong with all of us," wherein he writes, "I mean, Rick Perry may be a neo-Confederate sympathizer with a recurring tendency to bring up secession, but he doesn't look as weird in a photograph as Bachmann does, I guess."

Steve Benen: "... two weeks ago [during the debt/default debate], Fox viewers were told a downgrade might be a good thing. This morning, Fox viewers were told repeatedly that the downgrade the GOP caused is a tragedy that must be blamed on the White House. There’s a good reason Fox viewers seem so confused so often." ...

... The Fox "News" Austerity Program. Kevin Drum of Mother Jones explains: while doing his morning stretches, Drum learned from Fox "News" that we have to cut government spending because people are too fat. "We have sinned and we deserve it. Austerity will make the pain worse, but that's all for the best too. Because we deserve it. Oh, and maybe it will also help get that socialist Obama out of office. Boo-yah."

* Where what's true today is false tomorrow. Update: but might be true the next day.

Local News

Abe Sauer of The Atlantic has a hilarious recap of Wisconsin pre-election shenanigans including video of a god-awful Tea Party musical sing-along.

David Siders of the Sacramento Bee: "Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation this morning committing California to an interstate compact to award electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the most votes nationwide. The agreement would become effective only if states possessing a majority of the nation's 538 Electoral College votes agree. Eight other states and the District of Columbia have signed on, committing 74 electoral votes. The bill Brown signed today adds California's 55." Thanks to James S. for the link. CW: if you want to learn more about the National Popular Vote movement, their site is here.

News Ledes

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has updated coverage of the Wisconsin senate election results here (you may have to refresh the page). So far (10:45 pm ET), sad to say, they've called two seats for Republicans. Update: the AP has called three races for Republicans and one for Democrat Jennifer Shilling. A second Democrat, Jessica King, has won her race. ...

... Here's the (Madison) Wisconsin State Journal election liveblog. ...

... Channel 3000: Wisconsin "Gov. Scott Walker signed legislation on Monday that would redraw the boundaries of the congressional and legislative districts throughout Wisconsin. The governor signed into law two bills that redraw political boundaries for state legislative districts as well as Wisconsin's eight congressional districts in ways that benefit Republican lawmakers. Walker signed the bills privately Tuesday, just before a deadline for him to take action and as voters decided whether to recall six Republican state senators from office."

Washington Post: "Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) has selected Sen. Patty Murray of Washington to serve as co-chair of a new congressional committee charged with reducing the debt, Reid’s office announced Tuesday. Reid has also chosen Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) to serve on the panel, which was created under the terms of the recent deal to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, the statement said." Reid's statement is here.

AP: "Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs has been sentenced to life in prison for sexually assaulting two underage followers he took as brides in what his church deemed 'spiritual marriages.'”

New York Times: "President Obama traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Tuesday to pay his respects to the 30 American servicemen killed in a helicopter crash in eastern Afghanistan over the weekend. Four helicopters took the president and a coterie of military and administration officials for the 45-minute unannounced trip from Fort McNair in Washington to Dover, where the remains of the Americans, including the 22 Navy Seal commandos killed in Saturday’s attack, were being transported."

New York Times: "Stocks pushed broadly higher on Tuesday, ending a volatile trading session in which the market fluctuated widely between gains and losses." ...

... New York Times: "Stocks shed some of their gains on Tuesday after the Federal Reserve released a statement in which it signaled that rates would remain exceptionally low through mid-2013 and said it would deploy additional measures as needed." ...

... New York Times: "The Federal Reserve said Tuesday that it will hold short-term interest rates near zero through mid-2013 to support the faltering economy, but it announced no new measures to further reduce long-term interest rates or otherwise stimulate renewed growth."

New York Times: "An extraordinarily tumultuous trading day in Asia extended into Europe on Tuesday, while gold prices hit new highs and the dollar fell, dashing hopes that the global stock market sell-off that has flattened investors over the last two weeks would lose steam."

After the Horse Is out of the Barn. Reuters: "The Senate Banking committee has begun looking into last week's decision by Standard and Poor's to downgrade the U.S. credit rating, a committee aide told Reuters on Monday. The aide said the panel was gathering information about the S&P move but no decision had been made on whether it will hold hearings into the downgrade." CW: so where were they during the aughts when S&P was giving AAA ratings to junk "securities"?

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: "Tuesday brings a series of recall elections unprecedented in the history of the state or nation. With control of the Wisconsin Senate in the balance, six Republican state senators will face a recall vote Tuesday. One Democratic senator has already weathered a recall attempt, and on Aug. 16, two more Democrats will be up for recall."

Think It Couldn't Happen Here? New York Times: "Prime Minister David Cameron said Tuesday that Parliament would be recalled and police numbers would more than double after a third night of rioting and looting spread across and beyond London in what the police called the worst unrest in memory. ...

For a society already under severe economic strain, the rioting raised new questions about the political sustainability of the Cameron government’s spending cuts, particularly the deep cutbacks in social programs. These have hit the country’s poor especially hard, including large numbers of the minority youths who have been at the forefront of the unrest.

      ... Guardian: liveblog here. Includes videos. ...

     ... Guardian Update: "Central Manchester and Salford saw serious looting and disorder as gangs waged running battles with police, ransacking dozens of shops. Similar, if less widespread, trouble flared in Birmingham and elsewhere in the West Midlands. The most serious disorder came in Manchester." ...

     ... Guardian Update 2: "Mark Duggan, whose shooting by police sparked London's riots, did not fire a shot at police officers before they killed him, the Independent Police Complaints Commission said on Tuesday. Releasing the initial findings of ballistics tests, the police watchdog said a CO19 firearms officer fired two bullets, and that a bullet that lodged in a police radio was 'consistent with being fired from a police gun'."

... How about This? Philadelphia Inquirer: Philadelphia's "Mayor Nutter announced yesterday that the city will have earlier curfews and increase police patrols in Center City and University City in an effort to crack down on roving groups of youths who recently have committed acts of violence."

** Congressional Leaders Stand up to Obama. New York Times: "In an unusual break with the White House, the Democratic leaders of Congress told the Supreme Court on Monday that President Obama was pursuing a misguided interpretation of federal Medicaid law that made it more difficult for low-income people to obtain health care.... The brief was filed by seven influential Democrats, including Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, an architect of Medicaid; Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House minority leader; Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate majority leader; and Senator Max Baucus of Montana, the chairman of the Finance Committee." Read the whole story.

New York Times: Nafissatou Diallo, "the hotel housekeeper who has accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexually assaulting her in his 28th-floor suite, sued him in State Supreme Court in the Bronx on Monday, seeking unspecified damages for a 'violent and sadistic attack' that humiliated and degraded her and robbed her 'of her dignity as a woman.'” Diallo's lawyer Kenneth Thompson "indicated in court papers that he was prepared to introduce testimony from other women who say they were attacked by Mr. Strauss-Kahn in 'hotel rooms around the world,' and in apartments specifically used by him 'for the purpose of covering up his crimes.'"

Fortune Cookie Philosophy

President Obama Monday afternoon on the credit downgrade:

I was so impressed with Driftglass’s post on Tom Friedman’s Fortune Cookie Philosophy that I decided to use Driftglass’s method to examine President Obama’s speech today (Monday). I'd say Driftglass has founded a new school of criticism or at least a new critical methodology. From fortune cookies to Obama's lips:

Our problems are eminently solvable. 

Our challenge is the need to tackle our deficits over the long term.

Making ... reforms … does require ... common sense and compromise. 

It’s a lack of political will in Washington…. And that’s what we need to change.  

… we will stay on it until we get the job done.  

… put money in people’s pockets and more customers in stores.

There’s no reason we shouldn’t act … now. 

… we’re going through a tough time right now. 

… a lot of people are worried about the future. 

Markets will rise and fall, but this is the United States of America. 

… we’ve always been and always will be a AAA country. 

We will press on.  And we will succeed.

Finally, too long for a fortune cookie but enough to make you lose your cookies, the usual appeal to shared sacrifice:

I have faith in these United States of America -- is because of the American people.  It’s because of their perseverance, and their courage, and their willingness to shoulder the burdens we face -– together, as one nation.  

I guess Friedman and President Obama's speechwriters shop at the same day-old fortune cookie outlet -- where every idea is stale and every prophecy is false.

The Commentariat -- August 8

We are now in our fourth day with no comments facility, and I have moved past anger to despair. Poor, pitiful us. On a grander scale, speaking poor pitiful us ...

Paul Krugman: "... there is no reason to take Friday’s downgrade of America seriously. These are the last people whose judgment we should trust. And yet America does have big problems." ...

... John Cassidy of the New Yorker looks at both sides & disagrees with Krugman: "In focussing attention on the dysfunction in Washington and making the participants pay a price, S. & P. was performing a valuable public service." ...

... The Tea Party Bites the Hand that Feeds It. James Surowiecki of the New Yorker: "Once games of chicken become the accepted way to resolve budget issues, the U.S. economy will become a much riskier place." But the deficit deal "hurts business in more concrete ways." ...

... "Bleak Prospects." Krugman: "The economics team at Goldman Sachs, whom I’ve always found very good, now say ... 'We have lowered our growth forecast further and now expect real GDP to increase just 2%-2½% (annualized) through the end of 2012.'" ...

... ** Bill Saporito of Time: why Congress & S&P deserve each other: Congress gave S&P its power, refused to rein in S&P after its irresponsibility played a huge role in the 2008 financial collapse. The kicker, of course, is that the taxpayer pays for both S&P's & Congress's misdeeds: "... a jump of a single percentage point in the interest rate the federal government pays [which is likely because of the S&P downgrade] will more than wipe out the savings anticipated by the current debt deal."

... Charlotte Rampell of the New York Times: "If the economy falls back into recession, as many economists are now warning, the bloodletting could be a lot more painful than the last time around.... The economy is much weaker than it was at the outset of the last recession in December 2007, with most major measures of economic health — including jobs, incomes, output and industrial production — worse today than they were back then. And growth has been so weak that almost no ground has been recouped, even though a recovery technically started in June 2009."

CW: Why does Not-President Kerry have more guts that President Obama? Heather of Crooks & Liars has the transcript.

Worst Ever. Steve Benen on the Republicans' hostage-taking of the U.S.'s "full faith and credit": "If we stick to domestic politics since the Civil War, can any other major-party scandal match this? Nothing comes to mind."

John Cassidy: "A substantive jobs bill is what’s called for, and the White House should send one to Congress as soon as possible after it returns from the summer recess.... The real barrier to a meaningful jobs program is not the markets or the ratings agencies but the G.O.P. If the Republicans were to vote down a jobs bill, however, it would hurt not only the economy but also, potentially, their own prospects. Meanwhile, for a Democratic President, especially one who has disappointed many of his supporters, campaigning as someone who fought to create jobs, rather than as a copycat budget cutter, would seem a winning strategy."

** U.S. Companies to U.S.: "Buh-Bye." Don Lee of the Los Angeles Times: "Many major U.S. companies are making big plans to expand overseas even as some of them announce new layoffs at home, and there's a chilling reason why: They're beginning to give up on the American consumer as a source of future growth.... In effect, as many corporate executives look ahead, the United States has a diminishing place in their thinking.... That shifting focus is one reason new job growth here has slowed to a trickle in recent months.... Big multinational firms are adding droves of sales and marketing employees in countries such as China, India and Brazil — even as many cut back or hold the line on employment and other spending at home." CW: this helps explain why American banksters & other corporate leaders continue to ask for & get tax breaks that worsen the American economy & increase income disparity. They don't give a flying fuck about the health of the U.S. economy or the U.S. consumer because they have new opportunities elsewhere. Let's ask GE CEO Jeff Immelt, the head of Obama's so-called jobs council, what to do.

CW: I missed Karen Garcia's analysis of President Obama's weekly address, but it's still worth a read, not the least because of the remarks by Dennis Kucinich, whom Garcia quotes at length.

David Carr of the New York Times: "... a News Corporation [Murdoch, et al.] division has twice come under significant civil and criminal investigations in the United States, but neither inquiry went anywhere.... Both cases involve News America Marketing, an obscure but lucrative division of the News Corporation that is a big player in the business of retail marketing, including newspaper coupon inserts and in-store promotions. The company has come under scrutiny for a pattern of conduct that includes below-cost pricing, paying customers not to do business with competitors and accusations of computer hacking."

Junior. Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times on how Utah billionaire & philanthropist Jon Huntsman, Sr. gave his able son a political career.

Right Wing World *

Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker profiles Michele Bachmann: "Bachmann belongs to a generation of Christian conservatives whose views have been shaped by institutions, tracts, and leaders not commonly known to secular Americans, or even to most Christians. Her campaign is going to be a conversation about a set of beliefs more extreme than those of any American politician of her stature...." CW: It's a long article. Enjoy. Here's a fun bit about Bachmann's I.R.S. career:

Bachmann usually describes herself vaguely as a 'former federal tax litigation attorney.' ... but ... she didn’t do much litigating.... Two of Bachmann’s five children were born while she worked for the I.R.S., and ... Bachmann ... spent a good portion of her time on maternity leave — the I.R.S. had a fairly generous policy — and that caused resentment.... A colleague said, 'She was an attorney here, but she was never here.' ...

Definition of Chutzpah. This president has destroyed the credit rating of the United States through his failed economic policies and his inability to control government spending by raising the debt ceiling. President Obama is destroying the foundations of the U.S. economy one beam at a time. -- Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) on S&P's lowering the U.S. credit rating. Bachmann refused to vote for any hike in the debt limit & said default would be no big deal. ...

... How to Get Good Press: Doh! Buy the Press. Maggie Haberman of Politico: New Hampshire radio host Jeff Chidester (or Chidestar) interviewed presidential contenders, including Michele Bachmann. You can bet it was a softball "interview" of Bachmann, since she was paying him as a consultant & shortly thereafter hired him as her New Hampshire campaign manager.

* Where every stupid thing you do is somebody else's fault & "ethics" is not in the dictionary.

Local News

Rob O'Dell of the (Tucson) Arizona Daily Star: " Banks that took bailout money were supposed to use part of the taxpayer-provided cash infusion to help customers avoid foreclosure, but instead, many of them are buying up struggling homeowners' tax debt. The tax liens earn banks up to 16 percent interest, and if homeowners don't repay their debt within three years the banks can foreclose on their homes. Since the bailout in 2008, major banks have bought nearly 6,000 tax liens in Pima County that total at least $15.8 million." There's a related item here. Thanks to Fred D. for the link. CW: if they're doing it Arizona, you can bet they're doing it in all 50 states.

News Ledes

Reuters: "Stock index futures tracked a sharp drop in global equity markets on Monday after rating agency Standard & Poor's cut the top-tier AAA credit rating of the United States, rattling already-jittery investors." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "Wall Street stocks plummeted on Monday as skittish investors, already concerned about the economy, struggled to work out the implications of an unprecedented downgrade of the United States government’s credit rating and sought safer places to put their money."

AP: "A besieged Syrian city came under fresh artillery fire early Monday as a deadly military assault left President Bashar Assad's regime increasingly isolated, with Arab nations forcefully joining the international chorus of condemnation for the first time. The renewed violence in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour comes a day after at least 42 people were killed there in an intensifying government crackdown on protesters." Here's Al Jazeera's liveblog.

New York Times: "Mark O. Hatfield, a liberal Republican who challenged his party’s positions on the Vietnam War and on a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution during his 30 years as a Senator from Oregon, died on Sunday in Portland, Ore. He was 89." The Oregonian's obituary is here.